+JMJ+
It’s DAY 14 of The Marketing Trad’s 2023 Advent Calendar and I have a burning question for you …
Do you have the guts to say “Merry Christmas” in your email marketing?
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re a Catholic who’s serious about the Faith, which means you want to bring your love of Jesus into everything you do …
Even with your business.
Now, I get it …
Not every company is explicitly Catholic, but it doesn’t have to be for you to say Merry Christmas.
I have someone who is close to me who launched a marketing enterprise years and years ago, and I remember when he started out, he had this little Christmas “animation” he said that he created.
It was a short video of some flying reindeer pulling a sleigh through the night sky, and in the end, set against the backdrop of all the twinkling stars, the words “Merry Christmas” appeared.
He said it was liberating to do it because of the usual War on Christmas garbage you see all the time.
It was refreshing for me to see, too, but then …
A few years later, the “Merry Christmas” in that short video was replaced with “Season’s Greetings.”
“Why’d you do that?” I asked.
And do you know what he said?
“Because, you know, that’s how it is.”
I’ve never forgotten that and it still bugs me to this day, and I know, it can seem like such a small thing, but do you know what?
It’s actually not small.
The Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the real reason for the season.
His birth split time in two halves: everything that came before Him, and everything that’s happened ever since.
You know it.
I know it.
Even many of the secularized Christians and atheists out there know it, too, that you can’t separate the religious aspect of this holiday, but that brings me back to you …
Do you have the guts to include “Merry Christmas” in your December emails?
I hope so.
It’s one of those things we can do, as Catholic entrepreneurs, to help restore a Catholic civilization in the West.
It’s also going to build one of those powerful “affinity bridges” that marketing legends like Dan Kennedy always talk about, a technique where you show the reader you’re “just like” them.
I’m sure there are other words or phrases you can use to describe it, like building a relationship with your audience.
I just like to call it bonding, but hey, whatever floats your boat, right?
Will it repel some people?
Sure it will, but who cares!
If you have a customer who’s offended by the phrase “Merry Christmas,” then let them go.
Repelling the kinds of customers you don’t want is actually another one of those powerful marketing tricks, but …
More importantly, above all this persuasion stuff, throwing “Merry Christmas” into your emails is something we can do to give honour to the King of Kings, and that trumps everything.
Stay holy my friend, God bless, and Merry Christmas.
Vic
The Marketing Trad
P.S. If you want help with your company’s emails, give me a shout at [email protected]. The New Year’s pricing discount is over, but we can still look at a booking a consultation, but I won’t be filling any sports until after January 3rd.
P.P.S. More house cleaning here. I won’t be sending emails from December 24th through the 26th, but they’ll pick up again on the 27th.
P.P.P.S. It’s the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle today!!! I hate thinking of all the times in my life when I doubted like Thomas, but his story gives me hope. St. Thomas, pray for us! Here’s the most famous scene about him in Sacred Scripture.
“At that time, Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them: ‘Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’
And after eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said: ‘Peace be to you.’ Then he said to Thomas: ‘Put in thy finger hither and see my hands. And bring hither the hand and put it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing.’ Thomas answered and said to him: ‘My Lord and my God.’ Jesus saith to him: ‘Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen and have believed.’” (John 20:24-29)